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Posts published in “Day: March 13, 2011”

Another marker

March 13, 2011

Toward the bottom of an Idaho Press-Tribune profile article about Wayne Hoffman and the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which he heads, a quote of considerable note. Especially to Idaho state employees, local government workers, and retirees.

The article's main point was how influential the group has become in the Idaho Legislature, and it surely is. One person quoted suggested it was now more influential than the long-running most-influential lobby organization, the Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry. It may be, and if it is, that's probably in considerable part because its views - libertarian, generally anti-government - are in alignment with those of a lot of Idaho legislators.

Which makes the quote of note. The article noted that Hoffman's group has "plans to propose changes" to the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, which handles retirement payments for state employees and many other public workers in the state.

Of PERSI, Hoffman was quoted as saying: “It’s a bad system, it should go away.”

Take it as an indicator. Among the most-conservative of Idaho legislators, the Idaho Education Association isn't the only organization with a target on its back.

Crisis in the nuclear debate

March 13, 2011

We've long thought that the people who dismiss the idea of nuclear power as a realistic energy source are being too dismissive. If you can resolve reasonable safety issues, ensure that the operation is price effective (not an obscene cost per kilowatt-hour) and get clear-eyed about the waste issues, it should be a realistic option, at least in some places and circumstances. And advances in technology suggest those issues shouldn't be insurmountable. The political could be harder.

Maybe much harder after Friday's tsunami. News of partial and possibly further meltdown of a nuclear operation in Japan, resulting from an earthquake the likes of which the Northwest could see somewhere in the future, is likely to shake up the nuclear debate in big ways.

Headlines like "200,000 evacuated as N-crisis escalates" in the Seattle Times won't make the pro-nuclear advocates' job much easier.